tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69405365222113281912018-02-21T22:22:12.384+08:00_urb_this blog is about the _urb_; meaning, anything having to do with urbanism and urbanization; i.e. sub-urban; sl-urban; hyper-urban; ex-urban; everyday urbanism; urban design; urban development; integrated urbanism; green urbanism; sustainable development, etc. My interests are inclusive and span the full (or, as I mistakenly just wrote, the fool) scope of urbanization and all its glory.Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.comBlogger117125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-44110556883759330882009-11-03T14:23:00.002+08:002009-11-03T14:28:06.018+08:00A Little Help from Her FriendsSo it turns out this weekends <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-snow-of-season.html">winter wonderland </a>was a cooperative effort between Mother Nature and Mother China, as reported in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/02/china-snow-beijing">Guardian</a>.<br /><br />And in <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5766595.ece">this Times Online </a>article from February there is a video showing the rockets in action.<br /><br />See Previous:<br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/05/strange-weather.html">Strange Weather</a>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-85972616237839274012009-11-01T16:04:00.001+08:002009-11-01T16:04:38.536+08:00First Snow of the Season<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_brown/4063600556/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2516/4063600556_270b4f86b2.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_brown/4063600556/">snowman 2</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/d_brown/">o d b</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> First snow of the winter season here in Beijing. And I'm stuck at work. On a Sunday to boot. yay!</p>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-25922068990520348472009-03-23T18:20:00.002+08:002009-03-23T18:29:36.755+08:00Edible Architecture 4 - Cantilever Cake Taste Verygood<p align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/ScdihmulG3I/AAAAAAAAEf8/slw23vRG3QE/s1600-h/CCTV-TVCC+Cake-754237.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316326214605282162" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/ScdihmulG3I/AAAAAAAAEf8/slw23vRG3QE/s320/CCTV-TVCC+Cake-754237.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><br /><br />Well…at least I hope they do…<br />From my friend and colleague Nozomi we are blessed with this picture of two incredible cake versions of the famous CCTV/TVCC buildings in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Beijing</st1:place></st1:city>. The buildings are designed by OMA of course but I don’t know who designed the cake versions. Surely it was a truly inspired baker. Possibly with a structural engineering background because that is quite some cantilever….or should we call it a cake-ilever?<br />Hmmm…maybe not.<br />I would love to see pictures of someone slicing this cake—I wonder if it comes complete with a demolition drawing package? Without some practice, or at least a little forethought, I can imagine a major wedding disaster: “Poor Suzie got smothered under her wedding cake when Bob didn’t follow protocol for dismantling the sucker. Took ‘em the rest of the night just to shovel her out! I guess they’ll never forget their wedding night…har har har….”<br /><br />If you’re a sucker for all things food and architecture, please check these out as well:<br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/11/edible-architecture-3.html">Edible Architecture 3</a><br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/11/edible-architecture-2.html">Edible Architecture 2</a><br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/edible-architecture.html">Edible Architecture 1</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">p.s. Don’t call it a comeback. Not yet at least.</span>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-30778586060340081912009-02-05T22:33:00.007+08:002009-02-05T23:35:29.923+08:00HIATUSHi Everyone,<br /><br />I have decided to take a break from blogging for a little while in order to regroup, reboot, and do some other things because I find blogging intensive and all-consuming, especially with a full-time job on the side...hehehe. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the archives and please feel free to leave comments, as I will be keeping up with them, or drop me a line from time to time.<br /><br />I will not leave you with high and dry...here are some of my favorite pictures from a recent trip to Linyi, PRC for Chinese New Year:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHBphc9I/AAAAAAAAEew/0y-CSvguyko/s1600-h/IMG_9633.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHBphc9I/AAAAAAAAEew/0y-CSvguyko/s200/IMG_9633.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299333905279710162" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHZlTmNI/AAAAAAAAEe4/KemYyfOfNyY/s1600-h/IMG_9668.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHZlTmNI/AAAAAAAAEe4/KemYyfOfNyY/s200/IMG_9668.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299333911704475858" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHif4FTI/AAAAAAAAEfA/jg_aJFMFaw0/s1600-h/IMG_9605.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsEHif4FTI/AAAAAAAAEfA/jg_aJFMFaw0/s200/IMG_9605.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299333914097620274" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyeTGbHI/AAAAAAAAEd4/p-TYBoTUxys/s1600-h/IMG_9675.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyeTGbHI/AAAAAAAAEd4/p-TYBoTUxys/s200/IMG_9675.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332452681411698" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyTSxBOI/AAAAAAAAEdw/-VM7RIOQiuA/s1600-h/IMG_9711crop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 138px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyTSxBOI/AAAAAAAAEdw/-VM7RIOQiuA/s200/IMG_9711crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332449727218914" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-Rs9UzfI/AAAAAAAAEdo/k9A9hXqx9PE/s1600-h/IMG_9735.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-Rs9UzfI/AAAAAAAAEdo/k9A9hXqx9PE/s200/IMG_9735.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327491634417138" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RR3CNnI/AAAAAAAAEdg/ZmO6k5At_UM/s1600-h/%2BsunsetCrop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 108px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RR3CNnI/AAAAAAAAEdg/ZmO6k5At_UM/s200/%2BsunsetCrop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327484360275570" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RXgCElI/AAAAAAAAEdY/U6UTtOxXJHo/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9794.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RXgCElI/AAAAAAAAEdY/U6UTtOxXJHo/s200/%2BIMG_9794.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327485874410066" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RGZq53I/AAAAAAAAEdQ/U646fbp-ZXQ/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9802-crop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 149px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-RGZq53I/AAAAAAAAEdQ/U646fbp-ZXQ/s200/%2BIMG_9802-crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327481284323186" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-Q87v4bI/AAAAAAAAEdI/JN7F6gGG3_Y/s1600-h/IMG_9860.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 536px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYr-Q87v4bI/AAAAAAAAEdI/JN7F6gGG3_Y/s200/IMG_9860.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327478742901170" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCzXPt_gI/AAAAAAAAEeQ/eZx0EVydAcU/s1600-h/IMG_0047.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCzXPt_gI/AAAAAAAAEeQ/eZx0EVydAcU/s200/IMG_0047.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332467968048642" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyhbcDeI/AAAAAAAAEeA/k69_B2fC2wc/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9994-crop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 504px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCyhbcDeI/AAAAAAAAEeA/k69_B2fC2wc/s200/%2BIMG_9994-crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332453521690082" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEqDIAPI/AAAAAAAAEeo/SyDBS8Sb1f0/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9941crop-bw.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 370px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEqDIAPI/AAAAAAAAEeo/SyDBS8Sb1f0/s200/%2BIMG_9941crop-bw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332765073277170" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEv0RsMI/AAAAAAAAEeg/QdqgGr1QoZg/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9942cropBW.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 167px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEv0RsMI/AAAAAAAAEeg/QdqgGr1QoZg/s200/%2BIMG_9942cropBW.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332766621610178" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEZNL3SI/AAAAAAAAEeY/rbbSIF-jGpc/s1600-h/%2BIMG_9943cropBW.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 147px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsDEZNL3SI/AAAAAAAAEeY/rbbSIF-jGpc/s200/%2BIMG_9943cropBW.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332760552070434" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCy5k7jGI/AAAAAAAAEeI/cevgzd5NDZo/s1600-h/IMG_9885.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SYsCy5k7jGI/AAAAAAAAEeI/cevgzd5NDZo/s200/IMG_9885.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299332460003953762" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">p.s. I might look happy in that final pic but because of my actions at the time I paid a price later. I have learned a lot about my body and its dietary limits from being in China. Formerly I would have just accounted my (then) forthcoming discomfort to a bout of food poisoning (or the Chinese equivalent of Montezuma's revenge), but as every good Chinese person will tell you: </span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Never eat hot sweet potato in cold wind.</span></span><br /></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-42800458460199952042009-02-01T00:24:00.005+08:002009-02-01T01:05:36.962+08:00URB-Links 01Hi Everyone,<br /><br />Shinian Kuai Le, or Happy Chinese New Year!<br />Sorry for the week long absence from posting but I have been on holiday for CNY since last Saturday. I hope to have some pics from the festivities on my Flickr page soon so all of you can take a gander. It's a very interesting holiday for me to witness as a foreigner and I really enjoy all of the traditions--the food, the firework, the family time, etc. It's truly wonderful.<br />With a new year also comes new traditions. This is the first in a new segment here on _URB_ - a weekly links update on things that I have found interesting in relation to the themes that we tend to explore here. So the links will be organized topically.<br />Without further adieu...<br /><br />GEO-MIMICRY<br />The big event in geo-mimicry this past week has to be <a href="http://www.big.dk/projects/zir/zir.html">BIG's new masterplan for Zira Island</a> in Azerbaijan. Will it really be a zero-energy resort and a "sustainable model for urban development"? That remains to be seen...but what we do know for certain is that the project's form is derived from Azerbaijan's famous 'Seven Peaks.'<br /><br />PHREE_Urbanism<br />Although this is not exactly urban, the fact that the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/science/earth/30forest.html?pagewanted=1&amp;_r=1">rainforests are regenerating themselves</a> on abandoned farmland is pretty great news. But in the end tt actually does have something to do with urbanization however: "small holdings...and much larger swaths of farmland — are reverting to nature, as people abandon their land and move to the cities in search of better livings."<br /><br />MEGASTRUCTURES<br />Io9 features a great <a href="http://io9.com/photogallery/megaspacestructure/">gallery of megaSPACEstructures</a>--apparently where we will all be living in a few decades. My favorite? Probably the first image apparently supplied by NASA--it's a great mix of <span style="font-style: italic;">2001</span>, Paolo Soleri, and an LA suburb.<br /><br />MEDIATION<br /><a href="http://archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3170&amp;PagePosition=1">The Architect's Newspaper's editorial</a> by Julie Iovine encourages architects to expand their professional capacities and become "designers of options, instead of icons." She also mentions a forthcoming book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Depends-Jeremy-Till/dp/0262012537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1233420332&amp;sr=8-1">Architecture Depends </a>which sounds really great.<br /><br />'BOTTOM UP' PROCESSES<br />Limewire creator Mark Gorton is looking to bring an <a href="http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/01/mark-gorton-ceo.html">open-source approach to urban planning </a> through open source city models, increasing the capacity and complexity in online trip-planning, internet based planning forums for communities, and introducing para-transit and other smaller, more adaptive, and more responsive public transit systems. Sounds exciting!<br /><br />BLOGGING<br /><a href="http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/become-whereblogger.html">Become a WHEREblogger!</a>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-74146595981105501852009-01-23T12:00:00.003+08:002009-01-23T12:51:12.835+08:00Rural Studio 2<p align="center"><object height="300" width="400"><param name="flashvars" value="&amp;offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612839278879%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612839278879%2F&amp;set_id=72157612839278879&amp;jump_to="><param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=63961"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><br /> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=63961" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="&offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612839278879%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612839278879%2F&set_id=72157612839278879&jump_to=" width="400" height="300"></embed></object></p><br /><br />Forrest just sent me a series of comic book inspired panels describing the design and construction process of the Glass Chapel and is graciously allowing me to post them here on _URB_. It is a great set of images giving us a glimpse into the multifarious collection of tasks required by Rural Studio participants--conflict negotiation and mitigation, junkyard pulls, laborious construction techniques, on-the-fly detail design, community immersion, and of course--having fun! <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_brown/sets/72157612839278879/">Check out the flickr </a>set to look at the images in more detail.<br />Forrest also sent me the following two pics--the first of me in SubRosa and the second, quite amusing pic of my father whispering sweet nothings to me via the pipe of confidentiality I referred to in my <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2009/01/rural-studio-road-trip.html">previous post on the Rural Studio</a>. <br /><br /><p align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXlL7r6QdhI/AAAAAAAAEc4/LitcwrmAH_I/s1600-h/IMGP7039.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXlL7r6QdhI/AAAAAAAAEc4/LitcwrmAH_I/s400/IMGP7039.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294346325722166802" /></a> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXlL7QABcTI/AAAAAAAAEcw/WlKXcfRFcmQ/s1600-h/IMGP7040.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXlL7QABcTI/AAAAAAAAEcw/WlKXcfRFcmQ/s400/IMGP7040.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294346318230155570" /></a></p>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-11393832555163480962009-01-22T13:03:00.002+08:002009-01-22T15:00:14.442+08:00aqua.URB.anism || NY Moon WATER Issue<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXf-CtU1sKI/AAAAAAAAEcY/EZOUpUkwgfY/s1600-h/NYMoon-ManhattanWaterways-785967.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293979209477501090" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXf-CtU1sKI/AAAAAAAAEcY/EZOUpUkwgfY/s320/NYMoon-ManhattanWaterways-785967.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:8;color:black;">Interactive Map of the Water Systems of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city st="on">Manhattan</st1:city>, via <a href="http://www.nymoon.com/pubs/water/systems/">New York Moon</a><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;color:black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;color:black;">The current edition of </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><a href="http://www.nymoon.com/"><span style="color:black;"><span style="color:windowtext;">the New York Moon</span></span></a><span style="color:black;"><span style="color:black;">, “an internet-based publication adhered to the lunar phases of the real waxing, waning moon,” is dedicated to Water:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;color:black;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic;font-family:Arial;font-size:10;color:black;" >It billows in the lower atmosphere; it falls in drops or sheets or buckets or cats and dogs; it is drunk; it is sprayed over the breadbasket fields; it is peed; it slices down sluices, levels locks, tumbles through turbines in hydroelectric dams, courses through cataracts and rumbles over Mosi-oa-Tunya tunneling out its gorges; it vaporizes; it is cried; it fills the vast fields over which tankers and pirates zoom and under which manta rays skate; it gives and sustains Life (see, Fertile Crescent, primordial ooze); it also takes it away (see, Ophelia, Kursk); it is composed of three atoms — Hydrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen; it envelops Dead Sea bathers, bears away bits of Venice and serves as boundaries to be crossed only if the intention is to helm the Ship of State past the treacherous waters of the shining Cyclades. It runs off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;color:black;">Thus states the opening page of the issue. A few of the issue’s articles demonstrate the delicate balance between water and urban areas. “<a href="http://www.nymoon.com/pubs/water/voronezh/">The Sick Waters of Voronezh</a>” gives a first hand account of the intimate relationship between a Russian city and its water supply throughout history. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;color:black;">One of the amazing features of the issue is an interactive map of the “<a href="http://www.nymoon.com/pubs/water/systems/">Water Systems of Manhattan</a>” demonstrating <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Manhattan</st1:place></st1:city>’s natural hydrology with overlaid maps from 1865 and today. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic;font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Beneath <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>’s lattices of concrete, iron and landfill lie dozens of organic waterways. Using data from an 1865 sanitation map and contemporary satellite photographs, this projection depicts Manhattan as a vascular organ, whose obscure operation has had a powerful bearing on the fate of the city…Created for the department of sanitation, the map was a reminder that natural water systems, entombed beneath modern accumulations, hidden from view, could still have monumental effects on the functioning of city life. Indeed, structural engineers and city planners continue to consult the Viele map as the authoritative survey of <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Manhattan</st1:city></st1:place>’s water systems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;">Other interesting articles include a <a href="http://www.nymoon.com/pubs/water/wallstreet/">story</a> which casts Wall Street as a waterlogged version of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Pompeii</st1:place></st1:city> and a <a href="http://www.nymoon.com/pubs/water/flatpackfish/">proposal</a> to extend IKEA’s flatpack/fabrication logic <i><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">“beyond the limits of conventional architecture to the biological construction of fauna inhabiting the watery zones surrounding the city.”</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:8;">note: found via <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/manhattan-as-vascular-organ.html">BLDGBLOG</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:8;color:black;">See Previous: <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/06/water-worlds-aka-aquaurbanism.html">Water Worlds</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-69583332285714647522009-01-22T10:00:00.003+08:002009-01-22T10:00:01.105+08:00Rural Studio || Road Trip<object width="400" height="300"> <param name="flashvars" value="&amp;offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612828107942%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612828107942%2F&amp;set_id=72157612828107942&amp;jump_to="> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=63961"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=63961" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="&amp;offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612828107942%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fd_brown%2Fsets%2F72157612828107942%2F&amp;set_id=72157612828107942&amp;jump_to=" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_brown/sets/72157612828107942/">Flickr Set featuring pictures of my trip to see the Rural Studio, Hale County Alabama</a></span><br /></div>My father and I sat out early on a brisk Friday morning and headed west towards the neighboring state of Alabama. We would drive for a couple of hours before we reached our first destination, the sleepy college town of Auburn, where we waited in one of the only open coffee shops for my good friend Forrest. No, it is not a joke (as my mother initially thought)—I really went to Alabama to meet my friend Forrest (Fulton, not Gump). Ironically the place was called Cambridge Coffee House and I believe the intention, through its name and crimson interior, is that it would remind us of Cambridge, Mass. and the institutes of higher learning found there. Ironically, I say, because it was in Cambridge Mass that Forrest and I first met each other about five years ago where we would bond as fellow southerners. The bond continued to grow as we found ourselves strangely living in the same cities through the years—Cambridge first, then New York, and most recently in Beijing where we both found ourselves working in late 2007. In August 2008, just before the Olympics, Forrest left Beijing to pursue other ambitions which took him full circle back to Alabama.<br /><br />Early on in our relationship I learned that Forrest was an alumnus of the renowned Rural Studio program of Auburn University. Not only that: he had constructed, along with three other classmates, the Glass Chapel that had long been my favorite project of the program! So for a long time I had been intending to make the pilgrimage from Georgia to Alabama to get a firsthand look at the RS projects. This was the day that dream was finally going to become realized. Forrest eventually arrived and after general greetings the three of us set out once again for Hale County, the epicenter of the Rural Studio program.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/home.htm">The Rural Studio</a> was started in 1991 by Samuel Mockbee and D.K. Ruth, professors at Auburn University, to provide students an opportunity to get a unique educational experience combining construction experience through design/build projects and community activism. Mockbee, a well regarded regionalist with partner Coleman Coker in the 1980s, would give up private practice to found the program and “<span style="font-style: italic;">dedicated his life, as a teacher and as an architect, to the goal of providing 'shelter for the soul'. His inspirational and authentic architecture served to improve the lives of the most impoverished residents of rural Alabama</span>” through the Rural Studio. RS is renowned for its activism and community building, and its progressive, empirical approach to materiality and fabrication. In the Rural Studio, innovation comes through extreme forms of experimentation and pragmatism. Materials are formed and reformed through techniques of recycling, reconstitution, unusual combinations, and atypical selection, the latter often due to availability. Walls are made up of carpet and cardboard; buildings are clad in license plates and windshields; apertures are created out of beer bottles. When normal materials are used, such as brick or CMU, they are exploited to create textures and patterns rarely seen before. But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is a story about a road trip.<br /><br />Hale County is a three-hour trek from Auburn along long, flat stretches of highway that cross the southern portion of the southeastern states of the US. A highlight of the trip, besides noting minute variations in topography and foliage, was passing through Selma, AL, the tragic starting point of the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm">Selma-to-Montgomery March</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches">wikipedia</a>). As we crossed over the Edmund Pettis Bridge, the site of the “Bloody Sunday” tragedy in which law “enforcers” attacked the marchers with tear gas and billy clubs on their first attempt to march to Montgomery, the car grew incredibly silent, and no one would say a word until we reached the other end of the historic town center. I can not speak for the others but I know I was overcome with the weight of history and the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/">promise of a new future.</a><br /><br />After another hour we reached the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_supershed.htm">Super Shed</a> in Newbern, AL, the home base of the Rural Studio program and the site of its endless explorations. The Super Shed is basically a giant roof, the likes of which you see on virtually every farm in the southeast, under which are built a series of small buildings for the students dormitory. According to Forrest the concept is based on Jefferson’s design for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawn">UVA Lawn</a>. The Super Shed also serves as the studio’s dormitory and workshop. Many of the program’s most extreme experiments are tested here first, in mockups and the students own housing. Highlights here include the cardboard wall house and the cylindrical brick shower building.<br /><br />Then it was a short trip down the road to an abandoned house whose lot has been transfigured through a series of earthworks by the studio. Here we found one of the highlights of the entire trip. <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_subRosa.htm">Subrosa</a> is a subterranean cylindrical space made out of concrete and open to the sky which you reach through a long narrow concrete tunnel. It is one of Sam Mockbee’s last designs and it references the Greek and Roman myth of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_rosa">sub rosa</a> and pledge to secrecy. The structure was constructed after Mockbee's death by his daughter. The oculus in the center of the space is filled with a sculpture made of steel rods and discs which resemble a field of reeds. In the floor is a small pond and on one side of the cylinder is a niche. In the niche is a bench where you can sit and converse indirectly to your neighbor through a tube that starts on one side of the niche, circles around the cylinder, and finishes on the other side of the niche. Sitting back to back my father and I whispered to each other through the tube feeling a little like two kids holding tin cans connected by a thread.<br /><br />Moving on from there we arrived at the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_newbernFIRE.htm">Newbern Fire Station</a>, one of the more recent RS projects and a handsomely constructed building. It consists of a series of wood and steel structural modules clad in metal roofing on the north façade and translucent plastic and wood louvers on the south façade. A little farther down the road in Greensboro we found the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_animal.htm">Hale County Animal Shelter</a>, a Shigeru Ban inspired barrel vaulted roof sheltering kennels below. In these two projects we clearly see one of RS’ consistent design tropes—the shed roof with dynamic profile.<br /><br />From there we progressed deeper into the rural areas to Masons Bend, a small dirt road which featured many of RS’ early projects, such as the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_butterflyharris.htm">Butterfly House</a>, the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_HayBale.htm">Hay Bale House</a>, and the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_lucy.htm">Lucy House</a>. It also featured Forrest’s creation, the <a href="http://www.cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rural-studio/projects_glasschapel.htm">Glass Chapel</a>. The Glass Chapel features one of the most iconic images (for me) of the Rural Studio, a glass façade made out of “1980s GMC sedan car windows salvaged from a Chicago scrap yard.” Its other distinctive tectonic feature is a series of rammed earth walls “containing local clay, cement, and a small amount of water.” The rammed earth is a beautiful material, orangy-red from the local clay, and with a texture like velvet. The only disappointment is that it was a little derelict from lack of maintenance and its usefulness in target practice to the locals. Forrest looked wistfully at his creation and said “there are so many things I would do differently now.” But to me the ambition of four young college seniors—to use a rarefied, labor intensive construction method (rammed earth) and an innovative, never-seen-before material (windshields)—was remarkable and the finished product something to be proud of.<br /><br />In the end it was a great day—we got to see some inspiring architecture and some beautiful countryside. Unfortunately there are so many projects we were not able to see, including some bathrooms at a park that Forrest said were really great but we could not seem to find despite my dad’s new GPS system and our best intentions. It’s so awesome to see people thinking and working in an original, resourceful, and ad-hoc manner, and doing so much good through design.Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-1937165577719385882009-01-21T16:31:00.012+08:002009-01-21T16:55:16.550+08:00PHREE_URB 06 || ECOMETROPOLITANISM<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXbgFPl6D4I/AAAAAAAAEcA/YLpVjBTs7LE/s1600-h/PT_5_Collage.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293664792710090626" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 297px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXbgFPl6D4I/AAAAAAAAEcA/YLpVjBTs7LE/s400/PT_5_Collage.png" border="0" /></a> <div><div><div><div><div><div>Via <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=84792_0_24_0_C">Archinect</a> I discovered EcoMetropolitanism (EcoMet), and exciting and provocative proposal for a new form of urbanism by <a href="http://www.sala.ubc.ca/blogs/mari-fujita">Mari Fujita </a>and <a href="http://www.msaprojects.com/">Matthew Soules </a>of Vancouver. Obviously I find it exciting because it is a concept that is intimately connected to the <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2009/01/phrweeurb-05.html">PHREE_Urbanism </a>concept I have been proposing in my last few posts.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">HYPER-LOCAL</span></strong></div><div>Fujita and Soules proposition consists of seven points to make Vancouver a more wild and exciting place through an intensification of Vancouver’s already existing unique relationship between nature and urbanism. I really like this concept of the hyper-local—finding what is truly native to a place and exacerbating it.* This seems to be the Fujita and Soules’ MO for this and other projects. In Fujita’s blog I found an <a href="http://www.sala.ubc.ca/%2526quot%3Benmeshed-hybrid-city%2C-vancouver-verb%2526quot%3B-submitted-acsa-annual-meeting">excerpt of a paper </a>she submitted to the ACSA discussing the notion of several types of urbanity and needing to address places with more specificity, and going so far as to declare Vancouver as a verb and a new –ism. Fujitas declares that <em><strong>Vancouverism is the model of density and diversity within a livable framework</strong></em>. EcoMet, for Fujita and Soules, is a supped-up, accelerated, version of Vancouverism—a Vancouverism on anabolic steroids, if you will.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">EcoMetropolitanism Vs. EcoDensity</span></strong><br />Hyper-locality involves contending with not only the ecologic specificity of a place but also the regulatory specificity as well, and EcoMet seems to be a direct response to Vancouver’s <a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/index.php">EcoDensity</a> zoning system which was just put into place last year. According to the Vancouver’s EcoDensity website claims that<br /><br /></div><blockquote><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Part of the City of Vancouver’s response to these challenges is a new initiative<br />called EcoDensity. The program will be designed to create greater density<br />throughout the city, and do it in a way that lowers our impact on the<br />environment; ensures the necessary physical and social amenities; and supports<br />new and different housing types as a way to promote more affordability. (</span></em><a href="http://www.vancouver-ecodensity.ca/content.php?id=2"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">1</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:85%;">) </span></em></blockquote><div>I personally do not know much about the EcoDensity initiative except that it sounds nice as an idea. But Fujita and Soules use EcoMet as a critique of the new program: "<em>It's very much a critique of EcoDensity</em>," says Soules. "<em>There's many different ways in which density can occur, but EcoDensity makes no specific claims really about what form density will take. So EcoMet is an attempt to be more specific about what kind of density can occur."</em> (<a href="http://www.thetyee.ca/Photo/2009/01/19/EcoMet/">2</a>) Another way that they directly respond to Vancouver's regulations is by taking Vancouver's existing view cone regulations and invert them.<br /><br />The following is a description of EcoMetropolitanism straight from the horses mouth, Mathew Soules’ website:<br /></div><blockquote><br /><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>EcoMetropolitanism is a joint research project by MSA and FujitaWork that seeks<br />to understand, articulate, and visualize possibilities for the hyper dense,<br />super diverse, and radically optimized cities of the future. Cities in which the<br />vibrancy of the metropolis is amplified by ecologically designed architectural<br />environments.<br /><br />The project takes its departure from Vancouver as a city<br />with a specific and provocative relationship between dense urbanism and natural<br />environment. The EcoMetropolis can be understood as an accelerated Vancouver. In<br />building the EcoMetropolis certain performative strategies are instrumental:<br />Expanding upon received ideas of density to account for broader systems and<br />populations, inverting and redeploying Vancouvers view cone system, intensifying<br />programmatic diversity, maximizing building envelopes and creating productive<br />ecologies inside building interiors.</em> (</span><a href="http://www.msaprojects.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;">3</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span></p></blockquote><div><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Seven Points</span></strong> (all text and images via <a href="http://www.thetyee.ca/gallery/2009/01/19/EcoMetropolitanism/">The Tyee</a>)<br /><br /></div><p><strong>Point One: Make EcoMAX</strong><br />Measure not just simple human density but also plant and animal life and diversity.<br /><strong><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293664778565695106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 311px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXbgEa5ntoI/AAAAAAAAEbo/exVQXv0W3es/s400/PT_1_Diagram.png" border="0" />Point Two: Invert the View Cone</strong><br />EcoMet proposes Urban Habitat Cones, Urban Agriculture Cones, Density Release Cones, and Mixer Cones to view our newly exciting city.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293664779319782082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXbgEdtaKsI/AAAAAAAAEbw/37ECSXI0Joc/s400/PT_2_Diagram.png" border="0" /><br /><strong>Point Three: Intensity Use</strong><br />Fujita and Soules re-imagine Vancouver's downtown tower-on-podium template to serve much richer and more varied purposes: wildlife corridors slice through the commercial space at ground level; bridges and platforms host bird habitats and micro-agriculture.<br /><strong>Point Four: Exploit Co-Existence</strong><br />Don't just make a "green roof" that no one can see or feed from; design it as a source of animal food and human entertainment.<br /><strong>Point Five: Broaden Structure</strong><br />EcoMet augments structure and infrastructure's extant function of supporting humans by capitalizing on their potential to service the city's expanded population.<br /><strong>Point Six: Maximize Envelope</strong><br />Take the dull, predictable condo tower envelope and fold it, warp it, substract and protrude until you come up with a visually exciting and highly interactive architecture: all those new ledges and crevicess will allow plant and animal integration.<br /></p><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293665491297706978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 304px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SXbgt6CLI-I/AAAAAAAAEcQ/mbFmnLh3dj8/s400/PT_6_Collage.png" border="0" /><br /><strong>Point Seven: Ecologize the Interior</strong><br />Soules and Fujita suggest mainstreaming Vancouver's time-tested "interior agriculture" (a.k.a. grow-ops) into new crops--say, hydroponically-grown tomatoes-- that not only provide a source of fresh local food but could also generate a colourful "living wallaper" and other aesthetic qualities for the inhabitants. </div></div></div></div></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-35309086957205272262009-01-15T20:06:00.004+08:002009-01-15T22:44:09.375+08:00Sleep Dealer<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myJ4loQI/AAAAAAAAEbI/fVpcQ5uRx5o/s1600-h/sleepdreamers-01-792497.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291490730272203010" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myJ4loQI/AAAAAAAAEbI/fVpcQ5uRx5o/s320/sleepdreamers-01-792497.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myTa1LpI/AAAAAAAAEbQ/lKTuV59pU6I/s1600-h/sleepdreamers-02-793052.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291490732831747730" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myTa1LpI/AAAAAAAAEbQ/lKTuV59pU6I/s320/sleepdreamers-02-793052.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myuH5k2I/AAAAAAAAEbY/OUVu4uvI0_A/s1600-h/sleepdreamers-03-794024.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291490740000101218" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myuH5k2I/AAAAAAAAEbY/OUVu4uvI0_A/s320/sleepdreamers-03-794024.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myjPH7DI/AAAAAAAAEbg/Re6-SdQa3S4/s1600-h/sleepdreamers-06-794528.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291490737077611570" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SW8myjPH7DI/AAAAAAAAEbg/Re6-SdQa3S4/s320/sleepdreamers-06-794528.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:8;" ><span style="font-size:78%;">The images above are stills from <span style="font-style: italic;">Sleep Dealer,</span> a film by Alex Rivera</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:8;" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Robotic construction workers in <st1:state st="on">New York</st1:state> remotely controlled through outsourced operators in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >A renegade fighting wars in countries he has never been.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >A migrant worker who sells her memories of growing up in an undeveloped country to wealthy thrill seekers who do not actually want to experience their adventures first hand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >These are the roles of the three main characters of Alex Rivera’s new film <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.sleepdealer.com/">Sleep Dealer</a>, which discusses important political issues like globalization, colonization, immigration, and outsourcing in a futuristic sci-fi setting. I just heard about the film today via an interview with Rivera on Wired. The movie looks amazing—and it has already won some big awards at film festivals such as Sundance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >The movie discusses the same issues that urbanists are also discussing these days—urban migration, network culture, connectivity, situated technologies, urban computing, globalization, etc. One interesting point is that to achieve the futuristic, dystopian look he wanted he had to look no further than places that already exist. The photographs of <a href="www.edwardburtynsky.com/">Edward Burtynsky</a>, the border conditions between US and <st1:country-region st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> (depicted in a still from the film above, which Rivera and his team did nothing to alter for the film), and the markets of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mexico City</st1:place></st1:city> offered visions and settings for the film.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >River says that the film is about connectivity, virtual and real, and whether increased connectivity will bring with it more hope, more justice, or more alienation. As he says, it is up to us to decide which direction it will take.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;" >Check out the interview below:<br /><embed name="flashObj" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=" src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/1813626064?isVid=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" publisherid="1564549380" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=7060537001&amp;linkBaseURL=http://www.wired.com/video/latest-videos/latest/1815816633/south-of-the-future/7060537001&amp;playerID=1813626064&amp;domain=embed&amp;" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" seamlesstabbing="false" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" width="404" height="436"></embed></span></span></p></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-50908198484144093382009-01-13T23:48:00.025+08:002009-01-14T01:34:37.905+08:00PHREE_URB 05<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">GUIDELINES FOR A 'PHREE' FUTURE</span></span><br /><br />Well, here it is, long overdue--the expanded version of the Guidelines for PHREE_Urbanism. I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to leave any comments, complaints, and suggestions you have.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">1. From “Towers in the park” to “Tower IS the park.”</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhyCrqCI/AAAAAAAAEYw/w8EPg9CigMo/s1600-h/voisin11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhyCrqCI/AAAAAAAAEYw/w8EPg9CigMo/s400/voisin11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290821945924495394" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Le Corbusier - Plan Voisin<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhaV8OkI/AAAAAAAAEYg/yEvHTvhgsy8/s1600-h/mvrdv_gwangyyo_centre_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 302px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhaV8OkI/AAAAAAAAEYg/yEvHTvhgsy8/s400/mvrdv_gwangyyo_centre_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290821939562822210" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">MVRDV - Gwanggyo Centre, Korea<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG5Tu_SiI/AAAAAAAAEZI/4XHZz-rvZm0/s1600-h/libeskind+081201_4_250.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG5Tu_SiI/AAAAAAAAEZI/4XHZz-rvZm0/s400/libeskind+081201_4_250.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290822350105692706" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Daniel Libeskind</span><br /></div>I think the title of this one pretty much says it all—in <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/12/phrweeurb-01.html">PHREE_Urbanism</a> the modernist concept of towers hovering over and/or around a civilized park (best epitomized by Corb’s famous perspective view showing a luxurious terrace from which the ‘primitive’ nature is to be contemplated) has been superseded by an attempt to turn the tower into a wild, unkempt vegetal structure (that same luxurious terrace now becomes a place to inhabit that ‘primitive’ nature). This narrative excludes FLW’s Broadacre City, an agroUrban conception that is only now, 70 years later, becoming a seriously considered approach to urban design.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhkXI8KI/AAAAAAAAEYo/H1X617A3xck/s1600-h/frank_lloyd_wright_1958_the_living_city_1l.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGhkXI8KI/AAAAAAAAEYo/H1X617A3xck/s400/frank_lloyd_wright_1958_the_living_city_1l.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290821942252204194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">FLW's Broadacre City - Decentralized, Democratic (according to FLW), AgroUrban</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGiVd0DhI/AAAAAAAAEZA/flTiP2LoD4o/s1600-h/sciFiMinsukCho.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 361px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGiVd0DhI/AAAAAAAAEZA/flTiP2LoD4o/s400/sciFiMinsukCho.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290821955433532946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Minsuk Cho/Mass Studies<br /></span></div>Park Towers are now all the rage but I want to draw special attention to three pioneering figures whose vanguard designs introduced us to the idea long before it’s recent popularization: Emilio Ambasz, <a href="http://www.edouardfrancois.com/">Edouard Francois</a>, and of course, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Skyscraper-Vertical-Theory-Design/dp/0470843551/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1231862366&amp;sr=8-2">Ken Yeang</a>.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGiLDRPgI/AAAAAAAAEY4/KrbHMNZ1Bts/s1600-h/Ambasz-2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzGiLDRPgI/AAAAAAAAEY4/KrbHMNZ1Bts/s400/Ambasz-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290821952637844994" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Emilio Ambasz</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG5uVYOVI/AAAAAAAAEZQ/uv25xhs1THk/s1600-h/A.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG5uVYOVI/AAAAAAAAEZQ/uv25xhs1THk/s400/A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290822357246032210" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Ken Yeang</span><br /></div>We should also throw a nod towards <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.verticalfarm.com/">Vertical Farming</a> here as well.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br />2. Fill the Void aka Green is the New BlaNk</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWpW199I/AAAAAAAAEaw/mvFiIX1PQoA/s1600-h/2050_tianAnMen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWpW199I/AAAAAAAAEaw/mvFiIX1PQoA/s400/2050_tianAnMen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290828351684343762" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.i-mad.com/">MAD</a> proposes to fill one of the largest urban voids in the world, Tian'Man Square, Beijing<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG51RSg1I/AAAAAAAAEZY/p_Kvb_65iDY/s1600-h/verticalgarden02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG51RSg1I/AAAAAAAAEZY/p_Kvb_65iDY/s400/verticalgarden02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290822359107928914" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Patrick LeBlanc Vegetable Wall<br /></span></div>Have a blank wall on your house? Do it <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com">Patrick LeBlanc</a> style and grow some plants on it! Have a boring asphalt roof above your head? Grow a garden! Have an empty lot in the alley next to you? Throw some seeds in it! Through tactical maneuvers such as guerilla gardening (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Gardening-Handbook-Without-Boundaries/dp/1596914491/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1231862951&amp;sr=8-1">1</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Gardening-Manualfesto-David-Tracey/dp/0865715831/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1231862951&amp;sr=8-2">2</a>) and seed bombing today’s PHREE_Urbanists are taking back the streets and alleys and returning them to Mother Nature. <a href="http://artists.letssingit.com/joni-mitchell-big-yellow-taxi-tsgr9wh">Joni Mitchell</a> would be proud.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG79R0jfI/AAAAAAAAEZg/bTWNegE9Tt8/s1600-h/hellboy-elemental.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 216px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzG79R0jfI/AAAAAAAAEZg/bTWNegE9Tt8/s400/hellboy-elemental.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290822395617381874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Hellboy II</span> - Forest Elemental</span><br /></div>This strategy reminds me of one of the most striking scenes in Hellboy II: when the giant forest elemental is shot by Hellboy and transmogrifies into a spectacular verdant knoll in the middle of Brooklyn.<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nhboiCrdjMA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nhboiCrdjMA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"><br />3. If you can’t beat them, DESIGN them.</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIgCXIFII/AAAAAAAAEZ4/7X1jUz1vXWU/s1600-h/img_shanghai03.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIgCXIFII/AAAAAAAAEZ4/7X1jUz1vXWU/s400/img_shanghai03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290824114968728706" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Vicente Guallart - Shanghai Expo pavilion</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIgDCdG2I/AAAAAAAAEZw/MAVER9_4xUU/s1600-h/ica-intricacy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIgDCdG2I/AAAAAAAAEZw/MAVER9_4xUU/s400/ica-intricacy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290824115150461794" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Greg Lynn - Intricacy</span><br /></div>I’m not sure if it is floral inspiration or some sort of flower envy, but architects and designers are more and more often using plants and animals as their muse. Of course we have a soft spot for mimetic design (<a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/geo-mimicry.html">1</a>, <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/11/towards-geourbanism.html">2</a>, <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/geo-mimicry-2b-catalogue-of-projects.html">3</a>, <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2009/01/joanna-aizenberg-via-harvard-magazine.html">4</a>) here on _URB_, so we don't mind that architects are designing structures that mimic daisies (see <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/public-farm-work-ac.html">Public Farm post</a>), <a href="http://www.guallart.com/01projects/shanghaiexpo/default.htm">trees </a>(Guallart), or even <a href="http://www.glform.com/">venus fly traps (Lynn)</a>. In fact, we encourage it. Below is one of my recent faves, a hexi-sexy geometrical riff on a flower by Plan B Architects.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIf6JVExI/AAAAAAAAEZo/TuGklUzc0oU/s1600-h/sergio-gomez-4-528x352.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzIf6JVExI/AAAAAAAAEZo/TuGklUzc0oU/s400/sergio-gomez-4-528x352.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290824112763376402" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.archdaily.com/832/orquideorama-plan-b-architects-jprcr-architects/">Orquideorama</a> / Plan B Architects + JPRCR Architects</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br />4. Eat Your Home.</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAvJ1V8I/AAAAAAAAEaI/aqd_Gn0sVeY/s1600-h/fab-tree-hab.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAvJ1V8I/AAAAAAAAEaI/aqd_Gn0sVeY/s400/fab-tree-hab.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290825776260011970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Fab Tree Hab - Mitchell Joachim, Javier Aborna, Lara Greden<br /></span></div>Planting roots takes on a whole new meaning as homes of the future must be grow themselves. Fixity and stability, characteristics we looked for in a house during the humanist era, are things of the past—now it is all about dynamic flexibility and emergence. To those European architects who used to make fun of our stick-built American homes I can now say “Hey, it was just a part of the evolution baby…that’s how we rolled. And now we’re going to roll hobbit style.” The best part about it? If you get hungry you no longer need to run to the market, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Estates-Attack-Front-Lawn/dp/1933045744/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1231862951&amp;sr=8-5">just grab some fruit from the ceiling.</a><br />“But I’m not really into fruits and veggies” you say. I know. Me too! That’s why I built my guest house out of ginger bread. It tastes great AND it’s biodegradable!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAloGJrI/AAAAAAAAEaQ/qK5mUJoXbKA/s1600-h/mouse-human-ear.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAloGJrI/AAAAAAAAEaQ/qK5mUJoXbKA/s400/mouse-human-ear.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290825773702588082" border="0" /></a><br />For those carnivores out there, if we can grow ears on the back of a mouse I’m sure it will be no time before scientists create a self-generating, self-replicating bovine protein that can become building blocks for a ‘carne a casa’. Just look at this <a href="http://terreform.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-vitro-meat-habitat.html">In Vitro Meat Habitat</a> found on Mitchell Joachim’s blog. A ‘slab of beef’ takes on a whole new meaning.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAbXZcxI/AAAAAAAAEaA/931QROb3ri0/s1600-h/meat_house_terreform1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 276px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKAbXZcxI/AAAAAAAAEaA/931QROb3ri0/s400/meat_house_terreform1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290825770948195090" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">In-Vitro-Meat Habitat (Damien Hirst, anyone?)</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Note</span>: I actually wrote this last part before I wrote <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2009/01/joanna-aizenberg-via-harvard-magazine.html">last week’s piece on bioengineering</a>, but now I can think of at least one more thing for bioengineers and architects to explore together.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;"><br />5. Start a Flood.</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKBHpoupI/AAAAAAAAEaY/5nDA3YfpsyQ/s1600-h/MicahMorgan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKBHpoupI/AAAAAAAAEaY/5nDA3YfpsyQ/s400/MicahMorgan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290825782835853970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Micah Morgan - <a href="http://www.thesis.micahmorgan.com/">Park Space</a></span><br /></div>Water has been reenergized as a performative design element in PHREEU. Rethinking the role of hydrological infrastructure as a civic space, such as the concrete creeks in <a href="http://www.folar.org/">LA</a> and Houston, the increased use natural wetlands in landscape design, and the water-logged parking lots of <a href="http://www.micahmorgan.com/flash.htm">Micah Morgan</a>’s <a href="http://www.thesis.micahmorgan.com/">thesis</a> at Rice University are further examples and opportunities for what I have previously termed <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/06/water-worlds-aka-aquaurbanism.html">aquaUrbanism</a>.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br />6. Get a Pet.</span><br />Soon to be seen in classifieds:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">WANTED:</span> SWF in search of PUS* for protection against free-ranging zoo animals in adjacent superblock. MUST be big, strong, and ferocious, but cuddly and pettable. Grizzly Bears and Lions preferred. Cats and Dogs need not apply.</span><br />*PUS, now unheard of in the classified section, will soon be a commonly seen acronym of the classifieds section meaning “Pets of Unusual Size”<br />All jokes aside, as <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.stefanoboeri.net/">Stefano Boeri</a> wrote in “Down from the Stand,” increasing the biodiversity of our cities means experimentation with the cohabitation of different animal species. How this cohabitation occurs is still in question.<br />Is it through a Jumanji style rewilding of our cities? Perhaps abandoned areas of shrinking cities are turned into experimental zoos: Can you imagine performing a Matt-Clark inspired deconstruction on parts of Detroit to create interesting spaces for wild animals throughout abandoned pancake slab structures and then constructing a Team X/Archigram inspired elevated walkway (surrounded in glass like those used in aquariums to be sure) winding through this forgotten quarter to produce one of the most amazing psycho-geographic-zoological experiences ever??!? The aforementioned City Zoo project by Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today is an example of this kind of proposal.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKBOkHWkI/AAAAAAAAEag/_I2pK8QmNUA/s1600-h/TTT-zoo-perspective.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzKBOkHWkI/AAAAAAAAEag/_I2pK8QmNUA/s400/TTT-zoo-perspective.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290825784691743298" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWSt9A8I/AAAAAAAAEao/8KO8jy_kAQ8/s1600-h/TTT-zoo-final-section.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWSt9A8I/AAAAAAAAEao/8KO8jy_kAQ8/s400/TTT-zoo-final-section.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290828345607259074" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">City Zoo - <a href="http://www.tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com/">Tomorrow's Thoughts Today</a><br /></span></div>Or is it through an increase of agrarian livestock in our cities? This is the more likely scenario as it is actually happening. According to a recent <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189689">NPR segment</a> the American Planning Association has fielded more questions about changing zoning codes to allow chickens than any other issue over the last six months. City life resembles <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.frontstudio.com/">Front Studio</a>’s Farmadelphia proposal more and more every day. We no longer have to move out of town to Green Acres, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Homestead-Self-sufficient-Process-Self-reliance/dp/1934170011/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1231862951&amp;sr=8-3">we can bring Green Acres to us.</a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWn26sgI/AAAAAAAAEa4/XUtmikmrcpI/s1600-h/farmadelphia-frontStudio1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMWn26sgI/AAAAAAAAEa4/XUtmikmrcpI/s400/farmadelphia-frontStudio1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290828351282000386" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMm3M0sHI/AAAAAAAAEbA/giRQqIBKG0A/s1600-h/farmadelphia-frontStudio2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWzMm3M0sHI/AAAAAAAAEbA/giRQqIBKG0A/s400/farmadelphia-frontStudio2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290828630278320242" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.frontstudio.com/">Front Studio</a> - Farmadelphia</span><br /></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-69664447586446311972009-01-07T10:30:00.006+08:002009-01-07T10:42:46.745+08:00Bioengineering + Design<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWQUlFVjQ-I/AAAAAAAAEYI/KY76V9r3lQA/s1600-h/Pg40-01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWQUlFVjQ-I/AAAAAAAAEYI/KY76V9r3lQA/s400/Pg40-01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288374489760089058" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Joanna Aizenberg via Harvard Magazine</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:78%;">Like tiny flowers, micro-florets created in Joanna Aizenberg’s lab open and close in response to changes in environmental moisture. These structures, their action controlled by a hydrogel “muscle,” can be used to catch and release tiny particles.</span><br /><br />In the latest issue of <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/">Harvard Magazine</a> there is an <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/01/life-sciences-applied">article about the exciting new field of bioengineering</a> which is being explored in an incredible multidisciplinary directive at Harvard University. <a href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/research/bioengineering.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bioengineering</span></a> is “the application of engineering principles and techniques to address problems in biology and medicine” and is a synthetic practice bridging the fields of biology, medicine, engineering, physics, materials science, chemistry, and computer science. In the article’s intro bioengineering achievements include<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">constructing an artificial liver, altering bacteria to make hydrogen fuel directly from sunlight, [and] determining how the geometry of damaged heart cells leads to coronary disasters.</span></blockquote>Notoriously absent from the list of schools and disciplines involved in these new pursuits is the Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning and design. I feel that this is a loss, particularly for architecture, but also for bioengineering. In this post I will offer some thoughts of why I think this.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CREATIVE COLLABORATION</span></span><br />Interdisciplinary collaboration is one of the promises of attending the GSD, particularly among the three disciplines which operate under the school’s academic umbrella. Unfortunately this promise does not extend much beyond the walls of the school. This is not entirely the school’s fault—it is endemic to both the Harvard graduate system and of architecture and design schools in general I believe (in my eight years of design education at both Georgia Tech and the GSD I had only two classes which afforded opportunities for design collaboration outside the normative ‘design’ disciplines). But while I attended the GSD I had one opportunity for this type of collaboration between the GSD and the SEAS in a studio taught by <a href="http://www.kvarch.net/">Sheila Kennedy</a> as part of her Portable Light Project. And it was great. The collaboration between architects and engineers from the SEAS forced us all out of our comfort zones into thinking about design and applied technologies in ways we had not before.<br />The article in Harvard Magazine discusses how combining biology and engineering it combines ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences; the former is focused on quantification and prediction while the latter is focused on description. Architecture can benefit from both of these approaches and provide something unique at the same time.<br />So from a pedagogical perspective it would be very exciting for the students. This new form of creative collaboration would offer a new approach to both emerging and already familiar problems. It also represents the increasing complexity and convergence of design, science, and engineering disciplines and the need to find new forms of practice to confront the full range of topics that architecture and urbanism must contend with today. So it prepares architects who are well equipped for the collaborative forms of practice required today.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BEYOND BIOMIMICRY</span></span><br />As I have mentioned before, <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/geo-mimicry.html">architecture has always been a mimetic practice</a>. Biomimicry has become a hot topic among architects (as well as engineers) and is represented by an attention to biological forms and processes, exhibited by such firms as Emergence and Biothing, among others. Getting involved in the new interdisciplinary field of bioengineering would place architects directly alongside other fields also exploring these interests. People like Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientist developing new materials inspired by biology. One of her explorations is the development of a “nanofur” whose hair-like projections change properties in response to humidity. According to the Harvard Magazine article, “the ability to change in response to the environment is one of the properties that make biological materials more useful than artificial ones.”<br />Computer scientist Radhika Nagpal is also inspired by biology. She looks to “understand living processes and then looks for ways to apply those guiding principles to the design of computer systems and programmable structures that have the properties of living organisms.” In a similar vein, scientists like Edward O. Wilson demonstrate that there is a lot to learn about our own civilization and our cities by examining the social organization of other living organisms such as ants.<br />Both of these explorations could be invaluable to architecture, and in fact there are plenty of architects who are studying these same things. So why are we not being more proactive in working directly with these other disciplines exploring the same issues, developing applications for this work in architecture and urbanism?<br /><br />At the same time, I think that teaming up with the emerging bioengineering field can inspire us to move beyond mere biomimicry into something even more interesting and productive. Rather than merely mimicking the forms of biology and nature, if we could synthesize architecture, biology, and engineering the possibilities are endless. Pamela Silver has been investigating ways to engineer organisms to produce useful elements, such as hydrogen fuel. “By redesigning bacteria to produce hydrogen or other useful elements from the sunlight, she would like to turn them into ‘living solar panels.’” Iwamoto Scott’s Jellyfish House is an architectural example of how we could use bioengineering technologies to rethink the relationship between architecture, engineering, and environmental/natural systems. The possibilities are endless.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWQUl4DJbuI/AAAAAAAAEYY/JvQT9M1z3-c/s1600-h/iwamotoScott-Jellyfish.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 305px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SWQUl4DJbuI/AAAAAAAAEYY/JvQT9M1z3-c/s400/iwamotoScott-Jellyfish.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288374503373106914" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.iwamotoscott.com/ISARhome.html">Iwamoto Scott </a>- Jellyfish House</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />CYBORG URBANISM</span></span><br />Moving beyond biomimicry might also bring us closer to the type of <a href="http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/architecture/urbanism/matthew-gandy-cyborg-urbanisation,220,AR.html">Cyborg Urbanisation </a>proffered by Matthew Gandy, an urban geographer with the Royal Academy of Arts in the UK. Matthew Gandy states that “<span style="font-style: italic;">If a cyborg is a ‘hybrid of machine and organism’ then ‘urban infrastructures can be conceptualised as a series of inter-connecting life-support systems’. By blurring the boundary between body and machine, as well as nature and culture, the concept of cyborg offers insights into the ‘networks that enable bodies to function in the modern city’ and how we might understand wider processes of urbanisation.</span>” In Gandy’s lecture last year at the GSD he described our progressive understandings of the metropolis—the organic metaphors we used in the late 19th Century to the mechanical metaphors we used in the early 20th Century, and claims that understanding the city as a cyborg offers a new vocabulary for understanding urbanization. The work of many bioengineers, fusing organic and technological sciences, could deepen our understanding of what Cyborg Urbanisation is and its potential.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CONCLUSION</span></span><br />In the end the question that would probably need to be answered for people to want to invest in this type of collaboration is why is it necessary, what is there to gain from the joining of design and bioengineering? Material science, social organization, transcalar engineering, biomimicry, these are but a few of the potential areas of research that designers could benefit from by joining the interdisciplinary field of bioengineering. Creative approaches to problem solving, the development of new areas for research and application of materials and processes, a history of combining ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences, the opportunity to think about bioengineering at larger scale of application and influence, and an invested interest in environmental and social concerns are things that architects could bring to the table. Most importantly, it is hard, in my opinion, to distinguish between the biological, social, and environmental influences on the world, on cities, and on individuals—they are all intricately interwoven. Doesn’t it behoove us to all work together?Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-61324911958312603812009-01-02T10:30:00.005+08:002009-01-02T11:08:39.496+08:00Architecture of MediationI was recently asked to contribute a piece for an upcoming issue of <a href="http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=140">Urban China</a> on <a href="http://orgnets.net/urbanchina">Creative Industries</a> edited by Ned Rossiter, <a href="http://movingcities.org/">Bert de Muynck, Mónica Carriço</a>. The result, "An Architecture of Mediation", is now <a href="http://orgnets.net/urban_china/brown">available online at orgnets</a>. I believe the full issue, which I am really looking forward to reading, will be available quite soon.<br /><br />The piece discusses "architecture as mediation" as a potential third position situated between disparate poles of architectural practice: complicity with the processes of globalization on the one hand an a reactionary critical regionalism on the other. In the article I tried to provide a theoretical background for this strategy (how it has emerged from these polarized conditions) and a few projects by Chinese architects that I think exemplify this strategy, including the work of <a href="http://www.standardarchitecture.cn/">Standard Architecture</a> and Wang Shu, whose Hangzhou Academy of Art campus I have discussed previously. I have to admit that the piece was written quite hastily and the thoughts behind it are still nascent but hopefully promising. I think there is some resonance between these ideas and Mark Collins' post <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/11/iteration-city-more-on-bottom-up.html">Iteration City</a>.<br /><br />Here is an excerpt from the <a href="http://orgnets.net/urban_china/brown">article</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This irreconcilable opposition between progress and resistance, globalization and regionalism, </span><em style="font-style: italic;">avant-garde</em><span style="font-style: italic;"> and </span><em style="font-style: italic;">arriere-garde</em><span style="font-style: italic;">, is the transitional space within which the </span><em style="font-style: italic;">architecture of mediation</em><span style="font-style: italic;"> seeks to operate. Practitioners such as Wang Shu and Zhang Ke of China, <a href="http://www.alejandroaravena.com/">Alejandro Aravena</a> / <a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/">ELEMENTAL</a> of Chile, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.hashimsarkis.com">Hashim Sarkis </a>of Lebanon, and <a href="http://www.airoots.org/">Airoots </a>in India, are all examples of this emerging position. It seeks to mediate between a number of dichotomous states – a project’s intended scale of influence, i.e. its global and local effects; the conflicting interests of participants, both explicit and implicit; top-down and bottom-up planning systems; formal and informal design processes; and rural and urban contexts, just to name a few.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mediatory architecture is a complex undertaking and involves an expanded vision of architecture. It is a multi-disciplinary mission which involves communication, media, research, conflict management and design agency. It requires architects to be inventive, adaptive, responsive, opportunistic, active and reactive to complex scenarios. Alejandro Aravena’s concept of ELEMENTAL as a ‘do-tank’ reminds us that action is a necessary condition of mediation. Finally, mediatory architecture requires architects to negotiate the conflicting interests within particular situations.</span></span><br /><br />See Previous:<br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/10/caa-phase-2-by-amateur-architecture.html">Wang Shu's CAA 1</a><br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/10/caa-phase-2-by-amateur-architecture.html">Wang Shu's CAA 2</a><br /><a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/11/iteration-city-more-on-bottom-up.html">Iteration City : More on Bottom Up</a>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-72250859400374689782008-12-31T23:51:00.004+08:002008-12-31T23:54:00.799+08:00PHREE Accolades....Speaking of Jason King and his blog Landscape + Urbanism, I am delighted to find out that PHREE Urbanism made his <a href="http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/2008/12/dozen-of-best-of-2008.html">year end top twelve for "New Idea for 2009"</a>. Thanks Jason!! <br /><br />Now I'm feeling a little pressure...Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-68071692269907252792008-12-31T23:12:00.004+08:002008-12-31T23:31:14.446+08:00Happy NYE and PHREE UpdateHi Everyone,<br /><br />Just a quick note here to say:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">HAPPY NEW YEAR!</span></span><br /><br />I know I have been lazy the last couple of weeks in providing posts and updates. I'm going to have to blame that on (a) holiday down time and reconnecting with the fam, (b) playing with and <a href="http://www.geardiary.com/2008/08/04/nokia-e71-review-my-phone-has-arrived/">researching my new toys</a>, and (c) my parents who, upon my arrival in the US for the holiday, promptly put me to work installing wood floors and flat screen TVs and the like, an apparently endless task. It's been a lot of fun though--haven't done much manual labor in the last few years and it reminds me about the responsibilities of being a full-fledged adult, something it seems I've been avoiding.<br /><br />A short update on <span style="font-weight: bold;">PHR</span><s>W</s><span style="font-weight: bold;">EE</span>: thanks to Jason King's <a href="http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/2008/12/phrwee-urbanism.html">response to the series</a> and his knack for editing acronyms, we have dropped the W and changed the name to PHREE (pronounced FREE) which is a lot catchier and likely to become the IT buzzword of 2009. <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">PHREE Urbanism</span></span> baby--that's how we'll roll in Twenty-Oh-Nine. BTW, while I am attempting to provide a synoptic view of the PHREE Urbanism movement, you should follow King's prodigious blogging output in order to see it unfold in real time.<br /><br />I will be continuing the series in the next day or two, although I might slip something else in first, just to keep up the sense of anticipation...a dramatic pause, if you will.<br /><br />In the meantime, have a great 2009!Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-49724869016479403722008-12-27T20:02:00.007+08:002009-01-14T01:35:40.693+08:00PHREE_URB 04<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">DESIGN STRATEGIES :: Overview</span><br /><br />Finally, here it is. The moment we've all been waiting for. Throughout the past few posts I am sure you have been asking yourself "Geez, this Post-Humanist_ReWilded_Eco_Ethical_Urbanism stuff sounds really neat. How can I become a PHRWEE_Urbanist?" Well, here you are: The Top Six PHRWEEU Design Strategies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. From “Towers in the park” to “Tower <span style="font-style: italic;">IS</span> the park.”</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />2. Get a Pet.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />3. Fill the Void</span> aka <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Green is the New BlaNk</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />4. Eat Your Home.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />5. Start a flood.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />6. If you can’t beat 'em, DESIGN 'em.</span><br /><br />Over the next few days I will go through these strategies one-by-one, providing more in-depth descriptions, case studies and references for each.Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-78117665685418180292008-12-24T14:16:00.010+08:002009-01-14T01:37:31.378+08:00PHREE_URB 03<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">History + Theory 102</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHVPFcfe7I/AAAAAAAAEXI/inxbVrynZJY/s1600-h/GANDY-45B.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHVPFcfe7I/AAAAAAAAEXI/inxbVrynZJY/s400/GANDY-45B.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283238293018737586" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Bank of England, designed by John Soane, Aerial view by Joseph Gandy</span><br /></div><br />Today we will be looking at <a href="http://nastybrutalistandshort.blogspot.com/">Owen Hatherley</a>’s “Living Facades – Green Urbanism and the Politics of Urban Offsetting,” in <span style="font-weight: bold;">MONU</span>’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Exotic Urbanism</span> issue. It is a great article that takes a rather cynical viewpoint of the recent sustainable design efforts. His article is important for two reasons—to caution us of the appropriation of PHRWEEU imagery by governments and corporations to provide a positive public representation of their ‘eco-friendly’ actions (if they even exist in the first place), and to remind us that the history of “green” design goes back farther than most of our historical amnesia will allow us to remember.<br />Hatherley begins with an allegorical recount of the completely shocking and grotesque story of Josef Fritzel. It turns out that part of Fritzel’s positive public image was reinforced by the fact that he built and maintained his very own… roof garden!! In this introduction Hatherley succinctly summarizes the issue of using a green veneer as a political strategy (the Trojan 'Green' Horse of Strategic Engagement):<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Although it is obviously crass to extrapolate from the life and inclinations of this inhuman character to the wider issues of ‘green’ urbanism, it does suggestively make a certain connection. On the surface we have a sign of civic-mindedness and environmentalism, and on the inside…we have an unimaginable barbarism. </span></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHVPbVxfBI/AAAAAAAAEXQ/KMAZ_E-9bbM/s1600-h/GANDY-45A.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 307px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHVPbVxfBI/AAAAAAAAEXQ/KMAZ_E-9bbM/s400/GANDY-45A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283238298896137234" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Bank of England,designed by John Soane, rendering by Joseph Gandy</span><br /></div><br />Hatherley then goes on to remind us that the concepts of green roofs, living facades, and vegitecture are not actually all that new. He points out that green roofs and living facades have actually been around since the days of Romanticism. He describes how architects during the Romantic period would design new buildings “as if they had always, already been overtaken by undergrowth, fronds, weeds cracking cement and stone. John Soane…commissioned the draughtsman Joseph Gandy to render his new Bank of England…as a crumbling, overgrown relic.” Hatherley then gives us an abridged history of how these concepts have infiltrated and evolved in architecture and literature over the last couple of centuries, including J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World, John Foxx’s The Quiet Man, and the exotic jungles of Brazilian LA Roberto Burle Marx, placed in direct contraposition to the hard-edged concrete edifices of early modernism.<br />From Hatherley’s article we can easily postulate a couple of questions Contemporary PHRWEEU practitioners will have to contend with as this burgeoning discipline defines itself. How is PHRWEEU different from these historical examples? How can it differentiate itself from the co-opted versions demonstrated in Hatherley’s argument of the political offsetting of sustainable design?<br />As for the questions about political offsetting, I think Hatherley makes a strong argument for rethinking the role of the ‘green’ in ‘green design.’ When speaking about the living facades now in vogue, Hatherley suggests that<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">this is a remarkable transparent semiotic strategy, wherein by sticking natural materials onto a building’s façade, the impression is given that it is somehow in tune with nature rather than a hugely expensive, unsustainable waste of energy and resources. It is by no means clear that renewable technology itself is so picturesque.</span></blockquote><br />It reminds me of a <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=83440_0_24_0_C">recent comment on archinect </a>which offered a critique of MVRDV’s latest competition winning entry regarding the weight of the soil and planting, the additional strain it will place on the buildings structure, and invoking Buckminster Fuller’s approach to highly efficient, materially minimal structures. These arguments bring up another question for PHRWEEUrbanists: in the end, which approach is more sustainable?<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHWgPD8U5I/AAAAAAAAEXY/EjrLdT6IoUg/s1600-h/mvrdv_gwangyyo_centre_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 302px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SVHWgPD8U5I/AAAAAAAAEXY/EjrLdT6IoUg/s400/mvrdv_gwangyyo_centre_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283239687169528722" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">MVRDV - <span style="font-style: italic;">Gwangyo Power Center</span>, via <a href="http://bustler.net/index.php/article/mvrdv_wins_gwanggyo_city_centre_competition_in_south_korea/">Bustler</a></span><br /></div><br />For the question about history, I would argue that what is different with the new PHRWEEU compared to the architectural fantasies of the Romantics (which would later inspire Speer’s theory of the ruin-value of architecture) is that what is now sought are strategies of immediate nature, immediate wildness, and immediate ‘ruination’ (for the last point listen to Libeskind describe his latest skyscraper for New York). PHRWEEU is looking to coexist with the natural world and encourage positive productive benefits through increased diversity, instead of allowing ruination be a state that is returned to after we obtain our use-value from a structure and abandon it to entropic processes.<br /><br /><br />Tune in later this week for more from PHRWEEU. Until then, I look forward to hearing comments, criticisms, questions, and suggestions from all of you.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Wishes and Happy Holidays!</span></span>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-57011867582736077542008-12-19T10:01:00.007+08:002009-01-14T01:37:53.132+08:00PHREE_URB 02<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Theory 101</span><br /><br />While you can find a plethora of treatises regarding sustainable design, the more extreme form of PHRWEEU is an emerging phenomenon. Still, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Post Humanist Rewilded Eco Ethical Urbanism</span> is exhibited in many recent articles, projects, and competitions, which I am sure that you are all familiar with--probably much more so than me. There are two articles that I particularly want to discuss to provide a background of PHRWEEU: Stefano Boeri’s “Down From the Stand: Arguments in Favor of a Non-Anthropocentric Urban Ethics,” published in the first issue of <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/academic/upd/agakhan/newgeographies/">New Geographies</a></span>, which discusses a lot of the ideas floating around and the issues involved; and Owen Hatherly’s “Living Facades – Green Urbanism and the Politics of Urban Offsetting,” published in <a href="http://www.monu-magazine.com/">MONU’s Exotic Urbanism issue</a>. In this post I will discuss Boeri’s article.<br /><br />Boeri writes:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">The support for a non-anthropocentric ethical outlook implies the application of a new idea of urbanity, seen as humanity located within a spatial context where cohabitation with the kaleidoscope of life is sought not a preordained hegemony of power. This implies an equal distribution of conditions linked to social mobility, experimentation with the cohabitation of different species, and building a different relationship with the components of the natural world. We need to think about an urban politics based on inclusion, which protects principles and values that affect the future of the whole planet and its ecosystems.</span></blockquote>Boeri then goes on to describe three potential strategies for this new urban politics: re-naturalization of urban spaces, cohabitation with various animal species, and finally, to develop a new understanding of human relations which learn from these ideas of bio-diversity and bio-politics and deal with issues of globalization and increased diversity and social mobility. The first two strategies sum up what a lot of the projects that have inspired the idea of PHRWEEU—projects like Farmadelphia by Front Studio and City Zoo by Liam Young (<a href="http://www.tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com/slow/?p=25">Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today</a>).<br /><br />A key concept of Boeri’s article and these recent projects is the idea of <a href="http://www.rewilding.org/">rewilding</a>, from the field of conservational biology. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding">Wikipedia defines rewilding </a>as “passive and active activities intended to result in the reintroduction of extirpated or once-native species back into natural landscapes.” A more extreme version of rewilding is called Pleistocene rewilding, the subject of a recent <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-10/mf_bison?currentPage=all">WIRED article</a>. According to WIRED, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Today, the idea that you can use those same animals, or modern analogs like elephants and Przewalski's horses, to restore an ancient ecosystem is called rewilding, and it goes far beyond conservation. In theory, we could re-create conditions that last existed when mammoths walked the earth and the environment was healthier and more diverse.</span>” Many PHRWEEU designs are looking to do just that—restore urban environments to their natural states by re-introducing flora and fauna to those ‘blighted’ areas.<br /><br />Boeri’s last strategy is important to keep in mind—let’s make sure that the new PHRWEEU does not distract us from working to reduce the inequalities and injustices that still exist within the human race.Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-33305556857263438802008-12-19T09:02:00.006+08:002009-01-14T01:38:33.657+08:00PHREE_URB 01<blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">What Humanism means to me is an expansion, not a contraction, of human life, an expansion in which nature and the science of nature are made the willing servants of human good.</span> </blockquote><blockquote>John Dewey, <span style="font-style: italic;">What Humanism Means to Me</span></blockquote>There is no denying the fact that we are entering a new design epoch. We have seen the zeitgeist, and it is green*. While just a couple of years ago you could still claim to not be interested in sustainable design these days those words would be considered blaspheme. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Over the past several years a steady stream of design conjecture has given rise to a new design paradigm which attempts to recalibrate the (not so) delicate (im)balance between us (humans) and the rest of the world (everything that is not us or produced by us, but more than likely is probably consumed by us); an attempt to place us within the ecosystem rather than over it.</span><br />This demonstrates a much different attitude towards the world and our place in it than has previously been exhibited. According to John Dewey, the great American philosopher, humanism means bending nature to our will. This attitude prevailed during the last couple of centuries and has gotten us to the sorry state of affairs we have arrived at today. Global warming, peak oil, environmental degradation, mass extinction; the list goes on and on. Artists, architects, landscape architects, and urbanists have been rising to these challenges in a methodology that goes over and beyond mere sustainable design. Much like the radical shift in thought from a geocentric to a heliocentric model this means a displacement of humans from the center of the design and development ethos (or at least a sharing of the center?). Over the next few posts I will look at the theoretical underpinnings and various strategies of this new movement, which I am calling:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" >POST HUMANIST REWILDED ECO ETHICAL URBANISM </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" >(PHREE_U)</span><br /></div><br />More catchy than “sustainable”, right?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">*Why green? Why not blue, or white? Are vibrant blue skies and crisp white snow capped peaks also not important?</span>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-45773300193961175362008-12-11T23:18:00.012+08:002008-12-12T00:28:53.756+08:00Mines || The Last Frontier?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE06koRUHI/AAAAAAAAEWc/WH_xIFrrzDY/s1600-h/diavikpit_540.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE06koRUHI/AAAAAAAAEWc/WH_xIFrrzDY/s400/diavikpit_540.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278558419124572274" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE06XcG39I/AAAAAAAAEWU/rQ-R16ISQv0/s1600-h/diaviksummer_540.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE06XcG39I/AAAAAAAAEWU/rQ-R16ISQv0/s400/diaviksummer_540.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278558415583895506" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE051jAz5I/AAAAAAAAEWM/B1a0y8UO-68/s1600-h/diavikwinter_540.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE051jAz5I/AAAAAAAAEWM/B1a0y8UO-68/s400/diavikwinter_540.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278558406486052754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Diavik Mine, Canada, via <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96564952">NPR</a><br /></span></div>It's hard not to look at a photograph of a mine and get inspired. Well, maybe mortified as well, but, yes, somehow strangely inspired. Maybe it is the megastructuralist that lies within...I mean, look at these images of <a href="http://www.diavik.ca/">Diavik Mine</a> in Canada, featured in an <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96564952">NPR article today</a>. They look like a land_art-megastructuralists wet dream: a massive earthen superstructure just waiting to be infilled, modulated, and plugged-in. Actually, if you flip through Justus Dahinden's Urban Structures for the Future, many of the projects resemble the mine's not so subtle topographic deformations (both innies and outties). Take Chaneac's <span style="font-style: italic;">Crater City</span> for example. It is basically a series of man-made mines served straight up.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE07NayBtI/AAAAAAAAEWs/n9dvgLIqxHU/s1600-h/Chaneac.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 343px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE07NayBtI/AAAAAAAAEWs/n9dvgLIqxHU/s400/Chaneac.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278558430073849554" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE065jAm5I/AAAAAAAAEWk/mhowbagt3Pc/s1600-h/Chaneac2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 216px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE065jAm5I/AAAAAAAAEWk/mhowbagt3Pc/s400/Chaneac2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278558424739650450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Chaneac's <span style="font-style: italic;">Crater City</span> (1968) via<a href="http://athens9.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post_22.html"> Athens 9</a></span><br /></div><br />Of course the catastrophic transformation of the earth's surface that occurs as a result of mining's processes are awesome, surreal, and sublime. NPR's article says that to create the Diavik Mine they "had to drain a lake and then build a 2.5-mile dike in order to create an open-pit mine." I am reminded of John McPhee's passage in Assembling California which describes the rapid progression of mining technology in California, from pan handling to hydraulic sluice mining, and how drastically it transformed the landscape:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As the mine tailings travel in floods, they thicken stream beds and fill valleys with hundreds of feet of gravel. In their bleached whiteness these gravels will appear to be lithic glaciers for a length of time on the human scale that might as well last forever. In a year and a half, hydraulic mining washes enough material into the Yuba River to fill the Erie Canal...Broad moonscapes of unvegetate stream-rounded rubble conceal the original land.</span></blockquote>The NPR article says that "The Canadian government has stringent environmental controls and required precise details about how the mining will affect the wildlife and the countryside. Diamond companies also <span style="font-weight: bold;">have to show how they're going to close their mines safely even before they're open.</span>" (emphasis mine) That is an interesting fact for artists and architects interested in intervening on such a large scale. Land Artists such as Robert Smithson come to mind, as well as Landscape Architects such as Alan Berger's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Drosscape-Wasting-Land-Urban-America/dp/1568987137/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1229011584&amp;sr=8-1">Drosscapes</a> and <a href="http://www.s-aronson.co.il/The-Negev-Phosphate-Works.html">Shlomo Aronson</a>'s Negev Phosphate Works. Smithson once said that<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the world needs coal and highways, but we do not need the results of stip-mining or highway trusts...art can become a resource, that mediates between the ecologist and the industrialist.</span></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE7ikhQmkI/AAAAAAAAEW0/HNFeSIwp-dk/s1600-h/mirny.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE7ikhQmkI/AAAAAAAAEW0/HNFeSIwp-dk/s400/mirny.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278565703359699522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Mirny Diamond Mine, Serbia, via <a href="http://www.reformersandpuritans.com/2008/04/04/the-eight-deepest-holes-in-the-world/">Reformers and Puritans</a><br /></span></div>How else can we envision the use and renewal of the industrial process of mining? I'm interested in learning more about this, so if you know of any interesting examples please let me know. One thought that comes to mind relates to my earlier comments about megastructures. Since there is actually a lot of mining and quarrying takes place in urban and suburban areas, can we envision the possibility of creating new geographies of domestic occupation?<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE9Xl1vhTI/AAAAAAAAEW8/S7QcPvKp7e8/s1600-h/herbert+bayer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 308px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUE9Xl1vhTI/AAAAAAAAEW8/S7QcPvKp7e8/s400/herbert+bayer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278567713758741810" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Herbert Bayer, drawing of <span style="font-style: italic;">Mill Creek Canyon</span></span><br /></div>Herbert Bayers' drawings for his <a href="http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/51094/">Mill Creek Canyon earthwork</a> offer a poetic vision of the prosaic operation of cut-and-fill tht could offer a solution. How about taking the excavated earth and create new urban topographies? We could vastly increase our inhabitable surface with this technique. Take a look again at the Diavik mine photos--each step in that mine is 100 feet tall, tall enough for a 7-10 story building. Start by constructing a habitable mountain from the refuse as the mine is excavated and then once the mine is tapped, fill it in and create a light-filled subterranean city. <a href="http://www.guallart.com/11re-naturalisation/img/Images/tarragona.jpg">In the end maybe it would look something like this. </a>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-35130303134378094512008-12-11T22:48:00.005+08:002008-12-11T23:17:10.919+08:00What Buildings Make You Want to Jump?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUEofH6gV0I/AAAAAAAAEWE/8OKuy4Gy3KE/s1600-h/PLOT+Mountain+Climbing.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 142px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SUEofH6gV0I/AAAAAAAAEWE/8OKuy4Gy3KE/s400/PLOT+Mountain+Climbing.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278544753420425026" border="0" /></a>Ever wish that buildings would just move a little more? <a href="http://www.bruno-latour.fr/poparticles/poparticle/P-138-BUILDING-VENICE.pdf">Instead of picking up a gun</a> why not just come at it with the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Parallax-Steven-Holl/dp/1568982615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1229007144&amp;sr=1-1">parallax attack</a>? <a href="http://mit.edu/%7Esdunbar/www/rem%21.html">Do like the traceurs</a> and turn buildings into <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Climbs-Alternative-Uses-Architecture/dp/190103349X">your own artful obstacle course</a> and maybe that will do the trick. I know <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour">parkour</a> has been around for a while so I'm not introducing anything new, but the <span style="font-weight: bold;">video </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://blog.jdsarchitects.com/jds-architecture/mtn-climbing/">I just found on JDS' blog</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> of people </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e-vgQSqNtA">jump</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">ing all over </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.aplust.net/permalink.php?atajo=big_with_jds_mountain_dwellings_copenhagen">PLOT's Mountain Dwellings in Copenhagen</a> is pretty entertaining so I want to share it with all of you.<br /><br />It also made me think that maybe architects should <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98016313">join other professions and come up with a new useless statistic</a>, say an annual "Top Ten Buildings that make you want to Trace, Climb, or Jump."<br /><br />So now I ask all of you: What buildings most inspire you to jump, crawl, climb, tace, run, walk, or dance on them?Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-17876583654001144362008-12-09T23:14:00.003+08:002008-12-09T23:26:08.471+08:00EcoCity Policy Study :: China - United States<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/ST6NsTU2giI/AAAAAAAAEV8/HxY1ZOrMgPI/s1600-h/ecocity.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 316px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/ST6NsTU2giI/AAAAAAAAEV8/HxY1ZOrMgPI/s400/ecocity.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277811605566292514" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Source: <a href="http://greenleapforward.com/2008/02/04/singapore-and-china-to-build-tianjin-eco-city/">Green Leap Forward</a></span><br /><br /></div>From <a href="http://ecocity.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/us-dept-of-energy-and-china-agree-to-conduct-an-ecocity-policy-study/">ecocity media</a> I learned that the US and Chinese governments are teaming up to do a ten year study on EcoCity Policy, or <a href="http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1311.htm">Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation</a>, as they call it.<br /><br />Part of the agreement includes the creation of strategic <a href="http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1310.htm">EcoPartnerships</a> between US and Chinese corporations and academic institutions:<br /><ul><li>Building upon the announcement made at SED IV, the United States and China signed the Framework for EcoPartnerships under the Ten Year Framework, aimed at developing new models for energy security, economic sustainability, and environmental sustainability in both countries. The following seven initial EcoPartnerships were announced: <ul><li>Energy Future Holdings Corp. and China Huadian Corporation; </li><li>Denver, Colorado, USA, Ford Motor Company and Chongqing, China, Changan Auto Group Corporation; </li><li>Wichita, Kansas, USA and Wuxi, Jiangsu, China; </li><li>Floating Windfarms Corporation and Tangshan Caofeidian New Development Area, Hebei, China </li><li>Port of Seattle, Washington, USA and Dalian Port Corporation, Liaoning, China; </li><li>Greensburg, Kansas, USA and Mianzhu, Sichuan, China; and </li><li>Tulane University and East China Normal University (ECNU).</li></ul></li></ul>Specifically regarding EcoCities, the agreement states:<br />The United States, through the Department of Energy, and the People's Republic of China, through the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, agreed to conduct an EcoCity policy study, strengthen capacity building, promote science and technology development, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">design an EcoCity demonstration project</span> under the Ten Year Framework;<br />(emphasis mine)<br /><br />hmmm...I wonder how I can get on board to help design the EcoCity demonstration project...that sounds awesome!Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-11697445459044485372008-11-30T15:33:00.004+08:002008-11-30T15:48:34.508+08:00Utzon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/STJCXXEmxaI/AAAAAAAAEVM/TMQbikqbZws/s1600-h/utzon1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 221px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/STJCXXEmxaI/AAAAAAAAEVM/TMQbikqbZws/s400/utzon1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274351082702030242" border="0" /></a>Jorn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House and recipient of the Pritzker Prize, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/arts/design/30utzon.html">passed away over the weekend</a>. One of the 20th Century's greatest architects, who unfortunately was not able to build as much as we would have liked, will surely be missed. But his grace, passion, experimental nature, and sensitivity will persevere through his wonderful masterpieces.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/STJEK6H3Q5I/AAAAAAAAEVU/lzcVm5RHt-Y/s1600-h/utzon2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 140px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/STJEK6H3Q5I/AAAAAAAAEVU/lzcVm5RHt-Y/s400/utzon2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274353067795891090" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Bagsvaerd Church, Jorn Utzon. Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ole_robin/">Ole Robin via Flickr</a></span><br /></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-38832403625918520512008-11-27T10:58:00.001+08:002008-11-27T11:04:50.320+08:0028<a href="http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgsb0002+the-white-album-the-beatles-art-print.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 340px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 452px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgsb0002+the-white-album-the-beatles-art-print.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:arial;">What are/were/will you be doing at age 28?</span> <div><div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97391032"><span style="font-family:arial;">Some people* were making one of the greatest albums in the history of ROCK, pushing their creativity to the limits, expanding their craft, impacting the lives of millions of people for 40+ years….</span></a><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">….and all I’m doing is writing this shoddy blog…humbling...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;">*actually, George was only 25…and he wrote ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’!!! That’s like…rock god status material!!!</span></p></div></div>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940536522211328191.post-7883140648549695332008-11-25T00:24:00.010+08:002008-11-25T15:11:16.478+08:00ECOTRANSITIONAL URBANISM<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXoR_2R5I/AAAAAAAAET0/w1AqFtKs0Pw/s1600-h/jorge+ayala+aerial+view.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263400816527250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 284px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXoR_2R5I/AAAAAAAAET0/w1AqFtKs0Pw/s400/jorge+ayala+aerial+view.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Jorge Ayala,<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> Aerial View</span><br /></span></div>From Jorge Ayala, a student in the <a href="http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/">AA</a>’s Landscape Urbanism Unit, comes a project exploring ecotourism in China’s Pearl River Delta. The project, like most work from the <a href="http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/lu/">AALU</a>, is beautifully illustrated, diagrammed, and modeled. The AALU has developed amazing techniques for representing the various complexities of a site’s urban and ecological phenomena, kind of like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Design-Nature-Wiley-Sustainable/dp/047111460X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1227541960&amp;sr=1-1">Ian McHarg</a> on steroids.<br />It is great to see a studio focused on these issues for that region of China. One of the biggest issues confronting China is the process of 'rurbanization', due to the "New Socialist Village" mandate from Hu Jintao. There need to be more innovative scenarios for how this process can take place and be more beneficial to both the people and places that are effected by this transition. The LU's process of intense ecological analysis is imperative for creating a better understanding of how to intervene. The key will be how we come to understand the complexities uncovered and develop strategies for projection and intervention.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXovHz4mI/AAAAAAAAET8/csLVzqZeR6Q/s1600-h/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263408634552930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 283px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXovHz4mI/AAAAAAAAET8/csLVzqZeR6Q/s400/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXoynMolI/AAAAAAAAEUE/wp2AWAZiKe8/s1600-h/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%281%29.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263409571504722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 283px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXoynMolI/AAAAAAAAEUE/wp2AWAZiKe8/s400/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%281%29.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Here is Ayala’s project description:<br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)"><blockquote></blockquote><br />ECOTRANSITIONAL URBANISM, Pearl River Delta, China</span><br /><blockquote style="FONT-STYLE: italic">JORGE AYALA<br />The project, located on a 27 square kilometer island called Qi Ao located in the Pearl River Delta, has the potential to become a gateway for Hong Kong/Shenzhen due to its strategic location and the increasing passenger flows through it. The site is threatened to become another generic Chinese urbanization that spread across farmlands and rural life. Thus the signs of scarcity of water resources, deforestation, fish farming and industrial pollution are already present.<br />Based on the Landscape Urbanism emergent discipline, the city proposal seeks to establish an eco-tourism strategy that embraces the existing site and its natural energies such as tidal variations, local mangroves and seasonal rainfall to assure the viability and sustainability of the island.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYGHnAetI/AAAAAAAAEUc/G6ETYccjoWM/s1600-h/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%284%29.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263913424059090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYGHnAetI/AAAAAAAAEUc/G6ETYccjoWM/s400/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%284%29.JPG" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXo8o4owI/AAAAAAAAEUM/VV3r4kKEaWg/s1600-h/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%282%29.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263412262937346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXo8o4owI/AAAAAAAAEUM/VV3r4kKEaWg/s400/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%282%29.JPG" border="0" /></a></blockquote>On Ayala’s blog he publishes a <a href="http://architectjorgeayala.blogspot.com/2008/11/conversations-on-landscape-urbanism.html">fascinating discussion</a> between two AA critics and himself, which simultaneously validates and questions the work of the AALU. I bring this up not to discuss the work of Ayala, which is obviously quite thought provoking and skillfully executed, but to further the discussion of LU and also some concerns that I have <a href="http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/08/discussion-of-week-simplicity-vs.html">voiced previously</a> here on _URB_. One critic, ‘Rob’, questions the special brand of formalism being developed in the AALU and his quote reminds <a href="http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/dks/tzonis/index.html">Alexander Tzonis</a>’ article “<a href="http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/dks/publications/online%20publications/1969-connection-the%20last%20identity%20crisis.htm">The Last Identity Crisis of Architecture</a>,” (although one would wonder if he would still think it was the last 40 years later), when Tzonis states that “<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">the misdirected central thrust of the academic community is responsible in the schools of architecture …for engaging students into a futile game of perpetuating and perfecting arbitrary…<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">hows</span> without questioning the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">whys</span> of their discipline…</span>”<br />I am not trying to say that the LU does not have good whys to go along with their hows, but one thing I would question in the end is the typically diagrammatic level of the final designs and how they actually operate in relation to the incredible data sets uncovered in the initial process. The data itself is developed into such visually stunning diagrams that I wonder if there is a tendency to suffer from a form of what Tzonis calls “paralysis through over-analysis”, leading to an inability to transform the data into productive interventions. To close, here is ‘Rob’s’ side of the debate (more detailed images of Ayala's project after the quote):<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Much of the work of the landscape urbanists strikes me as essentially a formal game, which we designers play to amuse ourselves. That is, there is a set of rules (determined in part by the professional history of landscape/architecture and planning and in part by developments in contemporary European philosophy, particularly Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze), a limited set of players, and a limited set of interested parties (those with sufficient training in the previously mentioned disciplines to appreciate the ways in which the actions of the players subvert the rules of the game). Most importantly, though, the game does not intersect reality (that is what a game is – an exercise which imitates but does not intersect reality). Typologies are generated, ecologies are analyzed, but cities are not changed, much less reorganized to accommodate ecological processes. The work of AALU typically strikes me as possessing only the formal characteristics of a diagram; data filtered through algorithms and passed off as innovative by virtue of its alien formal qualities. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">This is the return of the artist's obsession with form, robbed of their devotion to creating meaningful places.</span> Meanwhile, the concern for ecology and process is reduced to a passing nod, a diagram that proclaims the designer concerned with ecology, without requiring the design to be altered in significant ways to accommodate that concern for ecology. Obviously, this concern could be allayed with further explanation of how "tidal variations, local mangroves, and seasonal rainfall" are embraced by the design. I worry, though, (based on previous impressions of AALU), that these (wonderful) concerns might only intersect the design when a set of data points is needed to generate a form, and fail to inform the design at a deeper level. While adapting form to data is an interesting exercise and, in the hands of skilled folks such as AALU, generates beautiful drawings and renderings, it merely exchanges one kind of formalism (the modernist variety) for another kind (the landscape urbanist variety). A better post-modern urbanism, I think, would be one that is concerned not just with adapting the forms of urbanism to data, but the processes - a much, much more difficult task...</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(emphasis mine)</span><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYHDH9byI/AAAAAAAAEU8/yvqysN2v3BQ/s1600-h/jorge+zoom+10+B.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263929399963426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 290px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYHDH9byI/AAAAAAAAEU8/yvqysN2v3BQ/s400/jorge+zoom+10+B.JPG" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYG8icJQI/AAAAAAAAEU0/QOl8unZn0bA/s1600-h/jorge+zoom+06+B.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263927631979778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 284px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYG8icJQI/AAAAAAAAEU0/QOl8unZn0bA/s400/jorge+zoom+06+B.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXpOgkNBI/AAAAAAAAEUU/oUq0J1DLgcM/s1600-h/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%283%29.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272263417059882002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrXpOgkNBI/AAAAAAAAEUU/oUq0J1DLgcM/s400/Jorge+Ayala+AA+project+%283%29.JPG" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYYRonqvI/AAAAAAAAEVE/UlA4igRewy0/s1600-h/material+formations+%2820%29.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272264225352821490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6g7IF9kUXGQ/SSrYYRonqvI/AAAAAAAAEVE/UlA4igRewy0/s400/material+formations+%2820%29.JPG" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Material Formations</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:78%;">note: all images are the work of Jorge Ayala. A very special thank you to him for notifying me about the project and for allowing me to publish it here on <a href="http://www.archurbanist.blogspot.com/">_URB_</a>.<br /></span>Dave Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065945613102681804noreply@blogger.com4